The (Kind Of) Complete Woodstock: The Who

The Who’s Woodstock performance scared the hell out of me as a kid. Part of it was the ominous tone with which announcer Chip Monck intoned “The Who.” Pete’s Clockwork Orange duds didn’t help much, either, even if they predated Kubrick’s film. Hey, I didn’t know that — I was a kid.

But more than anything what scared me was the menace and intensity with which The Who played: John’s overdriven bass; Keith’s tumbling-down-the-stairs drum fills; Pete’s feedback; and in the middle of it all whirled bare-chested Roger, fringed sleeves dancing in the stage lights. The time was 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning when set opener “Heaven and Hell” shook the crowd awake. That’s probably exactly what it felt like.

Woodstock and Tommy are deeply intertwined in the Who’s story. Pete’s rock opera was do-or-die for the band. They were facing a mountain of debt, record sales were good but not great, etc. The notion of touring a two record set played in its entirety — a song cycle about a traumatized, pinball playing kid turned guru — must have seemed like madness.

But The Who’s sunrise set at Woodstock (and more specifically Wadleigh’s Woodstock footage) cemented their legend. Remarkably, an official release of the band’s complete performance has never been released. You can pick up the whole thing on a bootleg named Woodstock 1969, The Who, though.

Here’s their complete set list, along with where you can find official releases (but don’t forget that bootleg – it’s a Who fan must have). Note that “Naked Eye” is really an embryonic version of what eventually became that cut from Who’s Next. You already know part of this performance from the Woodstock documentary as the scene where Pete abuses his guitar then tosses it to the crowd.

On some days, The Who can manage to jostle Bruce out of his (almost) tenured first place. There are so many memories packed into their music, it about makes my head explode. Just now sat, nearly catatonic, in that little time capsule for, I don’t know, ten minutes? Where was I? Oh, yeah, I was going to write a comment about The Who.